Is neopets losing players?

[Naamah D.]

My question is, when will Neopets shut down? Anyone have an estimate?

[Finn the Human]

My question is, when will Neopets shut down? Anyone have an estimate?

I hope it doesn't because I have accomplished a lot in the site.

[Kaana]

http://www.graphbuzz...l2=&url3=&url4=

 

Found a thing. Large decrease over the past year.

 

What's more interesting than the general trend is the sudden drop in August last year. It does coincide nicely with the end of the Krawk Island "plot", as well as the beta release of Treasure Keepers, possibly drawing people off Neopets proper and onto Facebook.

 

 

On Neopets closing down - even with the reduction in numbers, I don't think it's in any danger of closing down in the foreseeable future. I think there was even an editorial question on it recently. My best guess is in another ten years or so.

[Naamah D.]

What's more interesting than the general trend is the sudden drop in August last year. It does coincide nicely with the end of the Krawk Island "plot", as well as the beta release of Treasure Keepers, possibly drawing people off Neopets proper and onto Facebook.

 

 

On Neopets closing down - even with the reduction in numbers, I don't think it's in any danger of closing down in the foreseeable future. I think there was even an editorial question on it recently. My best guess is in another ten years or so.

 

Another ten years sounds right...could you link to the editorial please?

[Kaana]

http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&issue=562

 

 

Is Neopets in danger of shutting down? ~___ashley

Hahaha, we're assuming someone said something on a chat board? This question was asked a few times back to back by different people. No, Neopets is in no danger of shutting down, as far as we know. :) We're afraid you're stuck with us!

 

Issue 562

[Finn the Human]

What's more interesting than the general trend is the sudden drop in August last year. It does coincide nicely with the end of the Krawk Island "plot", as well as the beta release of Treasure Keepers, possibly drawing people off Neopets proper and onto Facebook.

 

 

On Neopets closing down - even with the reduction in numbers, I don't think it's in any danger of closing down in the foreseeable future. I think there was even an editorial question on it recently. My best guess is in another ten years or so.

Another ten years sounds right...could you link to the editorial please?

http://www.neopets.c...orial&issue=562

 

 

Is Neopets in danger of shutting down? ~___ashley

Hahaha, we're assuming someone said something on a chat board? This question was asked a few times back to back by different people. No, Neopets is in no danger of shutting down, as far as we know. :) We're afraid you're stuck with us!

 

Issue 562

Though I am not sure how the mini-plot could draw people away. Treasure Keepers can be able to draw people away because I know a LOT of people who became Facebook obsessed.Though I hope Neopets doesn't end in my lifetime because I would hate for it to close down. :( All the joy it brought me.....

[Nika]

However TNT wants to try and logic it, they're still buying you extra zaps, extra faerie quests, ect, which is by and large an advantage to those able to get them and something that TNT had adamantly stated they would not do in the past.

 

I agree. Neopets is a business and needs to make money, but NC strikes me as incredibly hypocritical after how strongly the company has opposed real money getting involved. They explicitly state that selling accounts or neopoints for real money is a freezeable offense. And "fairness" has always been critical: your wealth is supposed to be dependent exclusively on how hard you work, and fortune cookies especially throw that into question.

 

Furorpoxx, I'd be interested to know whether male players are really the majority in Neopets. I don't think of Neopets as "girly" by any means, but I always thought most players were female.

 

One more thing: where can you see how many players are online at any given moment?

[~Xandria]

I agree. Neopets is a business and needs to make money, but NC strikes me as incredibly hypocritical after how strongly the company has opposed real money getting involved. They explicitly state that selling accounts or neopoints for real money is a freezeable offense. And "fairness" has always been critical: your wealth is supposed to be dependent exclusively on how hard you work, and fortune cookies especially throw that into question.

 

Furorpoxx, I'd be interested to know whether male players are really the majority in Neopets. I don't think of Neopets as "girly" by any means, but I always thought most players were female.

 

One more thing: where can you see how many players are online at any given moment?

 

I agree. Most players on the site are females, I'm pretty sure there is a statistic for that. I know there are males who play of course, and I don't consider them 'girly' in the slightest. However there is a stigma attached to it. For example, females who play neopets might tell there friends/bf/family about it and get laughed at. If a male were to do the same, he would be completely rejected as a loser. (In most circumstances) because of judgemental people!

 

I know that's a bit off-topic sorry. But I do think you are right, in fact, I think I only have 2 male neofriends, I have about 15 female.

[passiflora]

Here's an interesting, if questionable, tidbit. A 2008 research paper called "Who plays, how much, and why? Debunking

the stereotypical gamer profile" by Williams, Yee and Caplan reports results of several surveys of people who played MMOs like EverQuest and World of Warcraft. (I think it applies to Neopets, since its also an MMO) In a nutshell, they report that about 80% of players are male and that older players spent more time playing the game. They also reported that the average player is in his late twenties to early 30s. Furthermore, Williams et al. determined three factors that affect how much time players are willing to commit to an online game: Sociability, Achievement and Immersion. Interestingly enough, the higher a game ranked in Sociability and Achievement, the more time people spent playing it, while the higher it ranked in Immersion, the less time they spent playing it.

 

I haven't fully read the paper, or examined it with the depth that it deserves, but it makes sense to me. Kids don't have the disposable income to spend in online game environments, college students don't have the time. I suspect that the mean age and gender of Neopets players was and is different from EQ and WoW, but generally speaking, the principles should be the same.

 

The authors don't offer an explanation for why older female players spend more time on the games, but I can see how studies like this one would help companies like Viacom target their audience. Maybe that's what's happening here. They're trading large quantities of new, free users (who each generate hits on small profit ads) for fewer players with bigger wallets (who generate direct sales of expansions AND profit generating ads).

On the wikipedia page for neopets it actually states that there are more female users, which is different compared to MMOs like EverQuest and WoW. I think overall, Neopets has more of a social networking aspect and is less 'action-packed'/violent compared to those games (to the best of my knowledge anyway, I've never played any other MMOs lol). You'd never run out of stuff to do on Neopets, but it is different!

 

 

I think your post still makes sense though - realistically, trying to retain older players with cash to spare is probably a good tactic!

[excelnaota]

Here's an interesting, if questionable, tidbit. A 2008 research paper called "Who plays, how much, and why? Debunking

the stereotypical gamer profile" by Williams, Yee and Caplan reports results of several surveys of people who played MMOs like EverQuest and World of Warcraft. (I think it applies to Neopets, since its also an MMO) In a nutshell, they report that about 80% of players are male and that older players spent more time playing the game. They also reported that the average player is in his late twenties to early 30s. Furthermore, Williams et al. determined three factors that affect how much time players are willing to commit to an online game: Sociability, Achievement and Immersion. Interestingly enough, the higher a game ranked in Sociability and Achievement, the more time people spent playing it, while the higher it ranked in Immersion, the less time they spent playing it.

 

I haven't fully read the paper, or examined it with the depth that it deserves, but it makes sense to me. Kids don't have the disposable income to spend in online game environments, college students don't have the time. I suspect that the mean age and gender of Neopets players was and is different from EQ and WoW, but generally speaking, the principles should be the same.

 

The authors don't offer an explanation for why older female players spend more time on the games, but I can see how studies like this one would help companies like Viacom target their audience. Maybe that's what's happening here. They're trading large quantities of new, free users (who each generate hits on small profit ads) for fewer players with bigger wallets (who generate direct sales of expansions AND profit generating ads).

 

Wow, that paper is very interesting. For those who want to skim/read it, check it out:

 

http://129.105.161.8...oplaysfinal.pdf

 

The Appendix at the end really put things into perspective for Neopets as a whole.

 

Appendix A

Factor Loadings of Yee’s Motivation Inventory

Factor Inventory Item Loading

 

Achievement

- Leveling, acquiring great items and gear, and becoming powerful.

- Figuring out the game mechanics, planning my character’s development, and optimizing my character.

- Competing with other players in terms of combat, crafting ability, or the economy.

 

Social

- Chatting with and getting to know other players.

- Developing deep and meaningful relationships with other players.

- Being part of a team.

 

Immersion

- Exploring the world and knowing things (stories, locations of NPCs, etc.) that most other players don’t know about.

- Roleplaying and having interesting background stories for your character.

- Customizing your characters to make them look distinctive, stylish, and unique.

- Escaping from the real world and leaving behind some real-life problems and worries.

 

1. When you think about it, the only time people are "part of team" is during the Altador Cup and when plots take place. Most other things focuses on the individual - flash games are done alone, keyquest is AGAINST other players, combining NP/items for Avatar collatoral is discouraged, account sharing is banned, etc. Not that these things are without reason or bad, but it makes me wonder - when people kick and scream for a plot, is it about the plot or is it because there's few community events and games where people actually participate together?

 

2. "Customizing your characters to make them look distinctive, stylish, and unique." ... If Immersion decreases play time, then the NC Mall and customization was doubly bad. :laughingsmiley: (I'm kidding)

 

3. Achievement is a bigger factor for males than females according to the study, but less of a factor in Neopets. If you look at the way Neopets is, the system is built such that newer players have a much harder time catching up and "competing" with the veterans who have spent years building their accounts. Time-based avatars, retired books, overly expensive rare foods, retired stamps, hundred million NP weapons, etc., creates a situation where some feel they can't catch up to other players - which is in some cases is true. Players who start now will probably never be able to get those trophies. Again, this isn't necessarily bad - but other MMOs tend to make things easier to acquire over time to make it possible for new players to catch up with the veterans given enough time and dedication. In Neo, that isn't possible in some cases, and that may actually push some players away from the game.

[Kaana]

Though I am not sure how the mini-plot could draw people away. Treasure Keepers can be able to draw people away because I know a LOT of people who became Facebook obsessed.Though I hope Neopets doesn't end in my lifetime because I would hate for it to close down. :( All the joy it brought me.....

 

My point was that the plot ending caused people to leave - they felt there was nothing happening anymore, so they left.

 

2. "Customizing your characters to make them look distinctive, stylish, and unique." ... If Immersion decreases play time, then the NC Mall and customization was doubly bad. :laughingsmiley: (I'm kidding)

 

3. Achievement is a bigger factor for males than females according to the study, but less of a factor in Neopets. If you look at the way Neopets is, the system is built such that newer players have a much harder time catching up and "competing" with the veterans who have spent years building their accounts.

 

The difficulty of getting some NC items, particularly, is insane. The first time I did NC trading, knowing I was on a firm budget, was about a week of obsessively (and I do mean not thinking about much else, always having an eye on the boards, recalculating over and over to make sure I'd have enough) searching everywhere for the "right" trade. For some people it is a fabulous motivator, but I personally found the experience exhausting.

[Finn the Human]

My point was that the plot ending caused people to leave - they felt there was nothing happening anymore, so they left.

 

 

 

The difficulty of getting some NC items, particularly, is insane. The first time I did NC trading, knowing I was on a firm budget, was about a week of obsessively (and I do mean not thinking about much else, always having an eye on the boards, recalculating over and over to make sure I'd have enough) searching everywhere for the "right" trade. For some people it is a fabulous motivator, but I personally found the experience exhausting.

Oh, now I understand. Even though I am sure I won't leave because of a plot for at least 2-3 years I can understand that people found it boring. What is the worst about NC is that some items cost $10 for 1 item set. I wouldn't spend over $30 a year for pixels. I like the game but they are ripping us off!

[The Bandit]

I haven't read the entire thread, but I think it boils down to this more than TNT's customer service. Websites always lose members, and it really depends on how well you are able to replenish members. I've never seen Neopets advertise anywhere, and with all the other websites and technology available to kids these days, I can't see how they'd be attracting many new players.

 

 

It seems to me that a large amount of neopets user-base is now older members who joined when they were kids. When I joined (probably ~age 10), my family would have still had dialup or just recently switched to high speed, and in my limited scope of experience the internet wasn't that "big" - I didn't know what social networking was, I didn't know forums existed, I didn't know of any other online games, etc. - I just knew that all my friends liked this thing called "Neopets." If my 10-year-old self was transported forward to today, I probably never would have joined, and maybe never even heard of it.

 

I think this is exactly right. Yes, TNT can be over officious, but a lot of those people would probably have left anyway. People do get bored and leave - the problem is Neopets isn't attracting enough new users.

 

From the view of the casual observer, Neopets is a website for kids. But if you compare it to the sites which would seem to be its competition, like Club Penguin, Moshi Monsters, Bin Weevils etc., it doesn't look great. On those other sites, you can quickly create a pet and see it walking around! On Neopets, all you see is a static image. For kids, that's not what they want. I'm an ICT teacher - 8-10 years ago all the kids were playing Neopets, now they all play the other games I mentioned. For new child users, Neopets seems very complicated and not at all user-friendly.

 

Now don't get me wrong, I think Neopets is great, and it undoubtedly has far more depth than all those other sites put together. It still keeps my interest 10 years down the line. But it does have a problem, which is inherent in the way it was designed, which nowadays puts it at a major disadvantage.

 

Will any of the current Club Penguin players still be playing it 10 years hence? No, they won't. But sadly, they probably won't be playing Neopets either, because they will never have started.

[N4t4713]

I honestly am not surprised at the loss of players. Neopets seriously changed once they started trying to get money through in-game activities... to me it really ruined the spirit of neopets because before it was one of the ONLY completely free to play games =/ oh well I guess nothing lasts forever..